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China’s carbon price will need to rise if cleaner and greener forms of steelmaking are to take hold despite a ‘tsunami’ of scrap steel that can be fed into cleaner furnaces coming in 2035, a consultancy said this week.

A California-based enhanced rock weathering (ERW) project developer announced Thursday a deal to provide Microsoft 12,000 carbon removal (CDR) credits, in a move the pair said seeks to advance the emerging technology.

Maintaining seed diversity and abundance is essential – and requires constant work. It’s time for Congress to return to the seed business

From 1862 until 1923, US senators and members of Congress provided vast numbers of seeds to constituents. At its peak, the congressional seed distribution program delivered over 60m seed packets directly to farmers and market gardeners every year, helping introduce new varieties of everything from wheat and corn to oats, soybeans, flowers and vegetables. A century later, far fewer Americans till the soil for a living, but seeds remain central to our lives.

To understand the importance of seeds, try to imagine a morning without them. It would begin naked on a bare mattress, with no cozy sheets or pajamas, and there would be no fluffy towel to wrap up in after your shower. All of those things come from the seeds of the cotton plant. Stumbling wet into the kitchen, you would find no coffee, and no toast or bagel to go with it. There would be no eggs, no bacon, no cereal, no milk. All of those staples come from seeds or from livestock raised on seed crops. And if you thought you might console yourself with a chocolate bar, you can forget it. Cocoa powder, and the cocoa butter that makes it melt in your mouth, are both derived from seeds.

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European carbon prices headed for their biggest daily loss in a month on Thursday, after the market gapped lower at the open as traders reacted to Washington's announcement of new import tariffs on all major trading partners, and dropped again in mid-morning as early US selling weighed on the market.

Prices in China's national emissions market continued to decline over the past week as recent policy updates have failed to stir enthusiasm among traders, while the country's voluntary market saw relatively robust trading activity amid improving demand.

Sanger Institute’s Tree of Life team say genomes offer invaluable insight into how species will fare under climate crisis

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“We are following the ‘invertebrate of the year’ series with bated breath,” began the email that arrived in the Guardian’s inbox last week.

Mark Blaxter leads the Sanger Institute’s Tree of Life programme, a project that sequences species’ DNA to understand the diversity and origins of life on Earth. But far more importantly, Blaxter and his team are superfans of our invertebrate of the year competition and have offered to map the genome sequence of whoever wins this year.

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An urban Canadian innovation hub announced Thursday the pre-purchase of CO2 removals (CDRs) for C$715 ($500) per tonne on average from six local ventures in conjunction with a consortium of Japanese partners.

The European Parliament approved on Thursday a proposal to "stop the clock" and delay application for two EU corporate sustainability reporting directives, following their vote on Tuesday to fast-track the decision.

An Ecuadorian association is pushing for a law to legalise voluntary environmental markets in the country, with the aim of having it presented again by October after it was blocked last year, its president told Carbon Pulse.

The UK's growing sector for fusion energy could see over £100 million invested via a partnership between the government and private sector as the government directs £20 mln into a fusion private venture capital fund.

Action urgently needed to save the conditions under which markets – and civilisation itself – can operate, says senior Allianz figure

The climate crisis is on track to destroy capitalism, a top insurer has warned, with the vast cost of extreme weather impacts leaving the financial sector unable to operate.

The world is fast approaching temperature levels where insurers will no longer be able to offer cover for many climate risks, said Günther Thallinger, on the board of Allianz SE, one of the world’s biggest insurance companies. He said that without insurance, which is already being pulled in some places, many other financial services become unviable, from mortgages to investments.

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A UK public sector pension provider has launched a fund for investing in nature and climate markets with a target raise of £500 million ($657 mln).

Entire population of Thargomindah forced to flee homes as levee breaks and record water levels of 1974 flood eclipsed

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At first, the levee bank held firm as the flood waters came.

Locals had tirelessly constructed the dirt wall, building on areas where the last major flood had approached the south-west Queensland town.

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A CSIRO study has found 39% less plastic pollution in and around Australian coastal cities over ten years. It also found more places with no rubbish at all. Stephanie Brodie, Research Scientist in Marine Ecology, CSIRO Britta Denise Hardesty, Senior Principal Research Scientist, Environment, CSIRO Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

An Australian conservation alliance has been awarded a contract to develop a permanent protection on private land method under the government’s Nature Repair Market (NRM).

Last year was a record two decade-low for global coal-fired power plant additions, with just 44 gigawatts of new capacity and 25.2 GW retired for a net gain of 18.8 GW, or a total increase of 1%, a think tank said Thursday.

Woodside Energy CEO Meg O’Neill has acknowledged it is difficult to prove that its cargoes of its LNG are displacing coal-fired power plants in Asia, despite it being a key talking point to justify the company’s growth strategy for years.

The trade war is likely to lead to more energy-intensive goods produced in the US, and dampen international investment in renewable energy. Rakesh Gupta, Associate Professor of Accounting & Finance, Charles Darwin University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

A leading environmental markets advocacy group has named a new director.

SEC chair says Victoria needs at least another two gigawatts of committed capacity to cover the 2028 closure of one of its last remaining coal plants.

The post Victoria needs at least another 2 GW of committed capacity before next coal closure, says state energy chief appeared first on RenewEconomy.